Through the 19th century and well into the 20th, quack medicine was often coupled with spirituality. No manuscript shows this on more full display, perhaps, than Doctor Pierces' Dream Book. This work combines dream interpretation with medical testimonials and recipes. A symbol of the late 19th century, the work of Pierce involving supposedly herbal remedies combined with an almost Frankenstein-esque fixation on then-modern science fuses together the old and the new in an era of consumption and superstition.